Special Event Permits
by f.f. lindy
Summary: Leslie finds out that Eagleton hasn't been playing by the Pawnee rules. But when things go wrong while she helps Ann pack before her move to Ann Arbor with Chris, she realizes that there are bigger things in life than special event permits.


**Special Event Permits**

**A/N: So, I've been working on this for weeks, and judging by the promos, it will go stale this Thursday. So, here is my first attempt at a Parks and Rec fic. Please be gentle. ****Set in the 6th season. **

* * *

"Oh my gosh, Ann, I can't believe that's your baby." Leslie awed, standing beside her friend at Dr. Saperstein's office. "That, right there is a baby inside of you."

"I know," Ann glowed, letting her gaze leave the ultrasound screen to meet her friend's eyes. "Pretty amazing, right?"

"Completely," Leslie watched intently as the baby shifted a bit on the screen, then pulled her eyebrows close together and protruded her lower lip. "Oh, I want one," she half whined. "He's going to be perfect Ann, look at him. You're making a little superhuman."

Ann just smiled up at her, releasing half a chuckle. "Happy and healthy would be enough for me."

"Well," Dr. Saperstein said. "Everything looks good. For 30 weeks along you're just exactly on track. And you're sure that you and your partner want to move before the birth?"

Leslie's frown deepened as Ann gave a little nod with pursed lips. "Yeah, 2 weeks and counting."

"And you've made arrangements with a new doctor there?"

"Yeah, my sister recommended hers. We're all set."

"Okay," he set aside his tools. "Well it's been terrific getting to know you and your son," he gestured at her belly. "Just be sure to have Erin out front send all of your records over to your new doctor. And please, don't hesitate to call with any questions or worries. I'm still here to help."

"Thank you Dr. Saperstein," Ann said gratefully.

"And take it easy on the move," he cautioned, "You know that, though. No lifting or twisting."

"I'm watching her like a hawk," Leslie chimed in.

"That's what I like to hear," he gave Leslie a thumbs up as he stepped out of the room.

"Are you hungry?" Ann asked, as the door closed behind him. "I'm hungry."

Leslie laughed. "Ann, we had lunch an hour ago. Of course I'm hungry. How about JJs before I go back to work?"

* * *

"We've got your waffles started, Leslie. And you, Ann?" the waitress asked without even handing the pair menus as they slid into a booth.

"Grilled ham and cheese sandwich, please, and fries," Ann requested. "Oh, and maybe a milkshake. Chocolate Malt." The waitress nodded and gave her a smile.

"I'm going to miss that," Ann admitted once the waitress was out of earshot.

"What? Having everyone in the diner know your name? You won't get that Pawnee charm in dumb Ann Arbor."

"No," Ann shook her head, "ordering that much food and no one even batting an eye."

Leslie smiled knowingly. "Yeah, you pregnant gals get to have all the fun." Then with a sigh she added, "And that ultrasound, was just so… Those little tiny feet." She wiggled her fingers and smiled. "It makes me want a baby so bad."

Ann took a breath and nodded, considering her words before responding. "Maybe you should start thinking about it." She gave a nonchalant little shrug, trying to make her words seem off the cuff.

"What? Oh Ann, you adorable miracle craftswoman," she tilted her head, "I know it would be fun if our kids were close to the same age, but I've got a lot I want to do before I settle down. I'm not ready for kids now."

"No, seriously, Leslie," Ann grimaced, as if the words we causing a pain in her jaw as they spilled out. "I hate to be the one to say it, but you keep saying you want kids, and you're going to be 40 next year. I mean, it just gets harder to get pregnant the longer you wait, not to mention the risk of birth defects, or developmental delays. The older you get the more likely there is to be a problem. Sweetie, I don't know how much longer you should put it off."

The quaint smile had faded from Leslie's face. "Oh," was all that she could force out.

"I'm sorry," Ann said, her face clearly showing her regret now that they words were on the table.

"No, uh, don't be sorry," Leslie sucked in a breath. "It's good to think about." Quickly, she sat up a little taller and straightened herself. "So," she began again readjusting her tone and demeanor to their upbeat baseline, "are you getting any closer on a name?"

Ann hesitated again, not entirely sure if she should allow the conversation to shift so abruptly. But, lacking the words to continue it, she shook her head. "Nope, we're still stuck on that one. Chris is having a hard time getting away from Kale," she grimaced.

"Kale?" Leslie's eyes got big.

"I know, right?"

Leslie chuckled, and eyed the waitress coming out of the kitchen with Ann's milkshake.

* * *

As hard as she tried to push the day's conversation from her mind, Leslie couldn't. She felt like those words were following her around, looping through her consciousness. Despite her efforts to disregard them, or tell herself they weren't true, she knew that Ann was right.

So, she stayed late at work to keep her mind busy, sending Ben home without her when he stopped in her office at 6. She sat with the spring recreation class schedule open in front her and worked on trying to arrange the room and staff assignments. It wasn't creative work, but it was a puzzle, forcing her to use all of her attention on the task rather than worry about what Ann had said, or worse, what it meant.

When she next looked up a the clock, it was nearing 10 pm. Thinking of her husband at home she set aside her work, switched off the lights, and locked up the office. The halls of the building were silent and half lit as she made her way out to her car, and the thoughts echoed in her mind louder than her shoes on the linoleum.

She arrived at home to find the house dark. Ben was already in bed, propped up with a sci-fi novel in his hands, his eyes closed and his breathing deep and rhythmic. She stripped out of her day's apparel and pulled on flannel pajamas, then slid in next to him. As she reached to mark his place in the book for him, his eyes fluttered open. "Hey," he said groggily, adjusting his posture and folding the corner of his book.

"Hey, sorry I'm so late. I got caught up in the schedule."

"It's okay," his eyes were at half-mast as he set down his book and turned off the light on his bedside table, leaving them in the darkness, "that's what I get for marrying such an important woman." He pulled an arm around her, snuggling her into his side, and pressing a kiss onto her lips.

In the silent darkness that fell between them, her mind reeled again. So, she gathered all of her courage and began softly, "Hey honey, I was thinking. I think that we need to have talk, you know, about the future. The next steps."

He nodded into his pillow. "Mmm hmm," he sounded in agreement, but she felt his breathing steady out as he slipped back to sleep. And again she was left in the quiet with thoughts racing through her worried mind.

* * *

The next day, back at her desk, Leslie was refocused. She'd slogged through a crowed email inbox and was ready to tackle her voicemail backlog. But still, she welcomed the distraction when Tom rapped on her door and wandered in. "Hey Leslie, I was just running the Q1 report on the T.O.M., and I noticed something a little funky."

"Funky?"

"Yeah, so far this year, no special events permits or paid reservations have been made in any of the parks that used to be in Eagleton." He handed her a printed report.

"Well maybe that's just because the soulless Eagletonians don't know how to experience joy, so they have no need for events," she offered.

"I don't think so," Tom shook his head and pulled his lips up into a pucker on one side of his face. Then, he handed her another sheet. "I looked it up. In the first 2 months after Eagleton was annexed, we issued over 60 permits and reservations, but since then, not even one."

Leslie felt her hatred for Eagleton boil up inside of her as her jaw tensed.

"And," Tom said emphatically, "not a single day use parking fee has been collected since then either. We're being shammed, Leslie, shammed by Eagleton."

"I knew we shouldn't have helped them!" Leslie squawked. "I knew they'd do something like this! Those weasels!" She tore the papers from her desk and stormed out of her office, headed down the hall for the City Manager's office.

"Ben, those goons from Eagleton are scamming the system." She threw the papers on his desk.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, Leslie, calm down." He pressed the air under his palms, gesturing for her to settle. "What's wrong?"

"Not a single special event permit, paid reservation, or even parking fee has come in from a former Eagleton park in over 3 months. They're letting us pay to maintain them, but they're not playing fair."

"Are you sure that there have been events?" he asked calmly.

"Ben, there were 60 in the first 2 months, and none since then? I just don't believe it. Plus, I drive past the Eagleton parks all the time and there are always cars in the lots!"

"Okay, why don't you calm down, and I'll investigate this."

"Yes! Investigate!" she shouted. "What if this goes deeper, Ben? What if they haven't been paying for anything? What if they're out there issuing their own business licenses or building permits?"

"You're right, Leslie, this looks fishy, but we can't start jumping to conclusions like that," he said calmly. "I'll tell you what. I'll call all of my department heads, and ask for a full report on the breakdown of services and permits provided to former residents of Eagleton. I'll call a meeting about it on Monday."

"Monday?!" Leslie screeched.

"Honey, it's Friday afternoon. People are checked out. No one will be able to make a reliable report until Monday."

"Or, we could case the parks this weekend and catch 'em in the act."

He set his hand on the desk to ground her. "Leslie, we're not going to case the parks, okay. Let's wait until Monday and sort this out."

"I'll rally the troops!" she announced, pivoting on her toe to march back to her department. "This is war!"

Once everyone but Ron, who of course refused, had been assigned to park for Saturday morning and briefed on their orders, Leslie retreated to her office to call Ann to recruit her help as well. She still had 3 parks to man and assuming Ben took one, Ann and Chris would provide full coverage.

"Leslie, we're supposed to spend the weekend packing. You said you'd help," Ann said.

"But Ann, this is war! The Eagletonians are cheating the system and I'm not going to let them get away with it for another day. All I'm asking you to do is to spend the day sitting the beautiful sunshine in a park. And if you see something that looks like a planned event, call me. That's it."

"But we're supposed to be packing," Ann reiterated.

"The doctor said take it easy. Think of this as a day off. It'll be good for you. Sunshine, grass, singing birds…"

"Packing." Ann said slowly.

"Okay, if you do this for me tomorrow, on Sunday we'll spend all day packing. You can sit on the couch and boss me around like your indentured servant."

She could hear Ann sigh with defeat. "You're not going to drop this are you?"

"Nope. Eagleton is going down."

"Okay, what park do you want me at?"

* * *

At 8 am everyone arrived at their stationed parks including a coerced Ben, who complained that this was absurd, but after nearly 12 hours of Leslie's insistence agreed to do it.

Leslie made paces around one of the towns larger parks, cell phone in one hand, binoculars in the other, and looked for any sign of an event. While there were, just as she'd expected, people using the park and even paying for parking, she didn't see anything that required a permit. Then, at 2pm, her phone rang.

On the other end of the line Donna explained that there was a corporate barbecue getting started right in front of her. "Do they have a permit?"

"I don't know, Leslie. You said call you, so I called you. I'm not going to go get up in their party."

"I'm on my way!" Leslie announced, speed-dialing Ben to meet her. She pulled a pair of aviators from her purse, slid them over her nose, and raced back to her car.

* * *

"Well hi," she said calmly, strutting towards the barbecue like a cop about to make a bust.

"Oh, hello," the man wielding a spatula said with a smile.

"I'm Leslie Knope, with the Parks and Recreation Department. I am just out here today, checking to be sure that everyone has the permits necessary for their large group gatherings."

"Oh, well of course, Ms. Knope," he nodded, "I've got my permit right here." He gestured to the paper taped to the picnic table beside them.

Leslie hunched over to see it. She could read, _City of Eagleton_ printed across the top. "Well you see, sir. There's a problem with this permit," she explained firmly. "This says it was issued by the City of Eagleton, but Eagleton was annexed into Pawnee about 6 months ago. You need a Pawnee event permit."

"Well, that's not what they told me down at city hall," he said with a shrug.

"City hall?" she screeched, her composure lost. "Whose city hall?"

"Well the Eagleton City Hall, of course," he said. "You people from Pawnee are a little bit slow, aren't you?"

"Slow? Try law abiding, upstanding, honest, giving, ethical," she railed. "We would never…" too upset to finish her thought. "When did you purchase this permit?"

"I'd say about a month ago. At the Eagleton City Hall," he repeated, this time a little more slowly and clearly.

She huffed in his face and tore the permit from the table. "This is not a valid permit. This is not a valid event. As the Deputy Director of the Parks and Recreation Department of the City of Pawnee I am going to have to ask you to disband this event and leave the park immediately!"

Just as she shouted these words in the face of the man who still held his spatula, looking a little taken aback, Ben jogged up behind her.

"Leslie, a word." He took her by the arm and pulled her back a few feet.

"They're issuing false permits, Ben! From city hall! _Their_ city hall! Their city hall shouldn't even exist anymore. We should take a wrecking ball to it. Bring Miley in here," she raved.

He took her by both shoulders gently and locked his eyes with hers. "Okay, that's unacceptable. As city manager, I will deal with this, okay. But you can't throw these people out of the park."

"We're going to that fake city hall, and we're going to put them in their place!" she yelled, lifting the Eagleton permit in the air.

"Honey, it's a Saturday. They're not going to be open on a Saturday. We'll handle this on Monday, okay. I'm as mad as you are,"

Her eyes flared open at him, her jaw tight with rage.

"Okay, maybe not quite as mad as you are. But I'm mad. This is bad. They'll be punished. But we can't fight it today."

"But we can end this illegal gathering," she shouted, turning her head so that the partygoers could hear her.

"Leslie, these are families enjoying the park. _Your_ park. Do you really want to throw them out?" He kept his face stern as she turned to see the children of employees running around after one another and parents chatting and laughing over their meals.

"No," she said, deflating and meeting his eye again.

"No, of course not."

"But they should have gotten a permit," she said.

"And they think that they did. And you can't fault them for that."

"Okay," she sighed, looking up at him with the overly expressive face of a teenager losing a battle.

"Okay," he repeated back to her, letting go of one shoulder and wrapping the other one around her and letting the seriousness leave his face. "Can we go home and deal with this on Monday?"

She looked up at him timidly. "No. I mean, yes, we can deal with it Monday, but I sort of promised everyone that I'd take them out for a drink as a thank you for their help."

He nodded and gave her a supportive grin. "Okay, let's rally the troops." They each high fived Donna for her success before pulling out their phones to call everyone else off of their stations.

* * *

In the morning when her alarm rang at 7 am, Leslie winced at the sunlight. Regretting the last drink of the night she rolled over and gave Ben a kiss. He was looking at her through one open eye. "Early," he groaned.

"I've got to go help Ann pack. She couldn't be bribed with booze."

"Okay," he said, blinking is eyes against the light. "Love you."

She gave him a grin, even if he didn't see it, and pressed another kiss to his cheek before climbing out of bed. "I love you, too."

She arrived at Ann's showered and caffeinated an hour later. Chris was already out for a run and Ann was taping together boxes in the kitchen. "You shouldn't be doing that," Leslie admonished, taking the tape away. "Sit. You can work from there. But no bending over."

"Leslie, I'm—"

"Don't fight me, missy," Leslie wagged a finger and placed Ann in a kitchen chair. "Now let's get started."

"Okay," Ann took her seat as ordered, "but only because my back is killing me. And you have to let me wrap things, at least," Ann argued.

"Deal, you can wrap anything I set on the table, and put it back on the table," Leslie granted.

They had packed and boxed the entire kitchen by midday when Chris came back from his run. "I do a marathon every Sunday," he explained. Ann smiled at him, endeared, and Leslie just tried not to look horrified. "Can I help you ladies with this packing? I am an _excellent_ packer."

"Oh, Chris, you don't need to do that. This is my favor to you guys for helping me out yesterday at the park. You should go enjoy your day."

"Well, that is very kind of you, Leslie. I would like to do a bit of cycling this afternoon." His head bobbed up and down enthusiastically.

"Then you should go do that. We have it under control here. According to my packing plan, we'll be done by 4."

Just as she'd estimated, by 4 they'd finished the kitchen, linen closets and guest room, and gotten a good start on the living room. "You are an _excellent_ packer," Ann said mimicking Chris' intonation with a mischievous grin.

Leslie smiled back and took a seat next to her friend on the couch. "I'm gonna miss having you here," she said. "I know I've already said that, but this sucks."

Ann put a hand on her knee.

"I know, but we'll still be best friends. It doesn't matter where I live. We'll still be Leslie and Ann."

Leslie just sighed. "Leslie and Ann. BFFs." They sat there on the couch for a minute and took in the nearly empty house.

"You want to get something to eat?" Ann asked, breaking the silence.

"Can we order pizza? I miss pizza. I just don't get the calzone thing."

Ann laughed. "Yeah, that man is crazy." She leaned forward to get up to retrieve her phone from the kitchen table and stopped short. A yelp of pain escaped her lips and she froze.

"Are you okay?"

Ann's brow furrowed and she moaned, clutching her belly.

"Oh, God, Ann, are you okay? Ann, what's going on?"

Ann took three slow steady breaths, her eyes pulled tightly closed. "I think I need to go to the hospital."

"But Ann, the baby isn't due for 2 months," Leslie offered with concern.

"I know."

Leslie felt her heart race in her chest, but tried to hide her distress. "Should I call Dr. Saperstein, or 911?"

Ann took more steady breaths. "No, I know the fastest way. Put me in the car on my left side, and I'll direct you."

When she helped Ann off of the couch, she tried to ignore the spot of blood on the seat where he friend had been sitting for the past hour. She followed directions carefully, but ran every stop sign on the way to the hospital. "You're okay, Ann," she reassured from the front seat. "You're okay."

"I'm okay Leslie. It's probably just Braxton-Hicks. It's probably nothing."

Leslie nodded. She could tell from Ann's tone that she didn't really believe the words, even as she spoken them. But, Leslie didn't mention the blood on the couch; she couldn't bring herself to. In this moment the best she could do was to be strong, for Ann.

Leslie pulled her car up to the front of the hospital and left it there in the loading zone as she ran in and yelled for wheelchair like a crazy person. It was whirlwind from there, as Ann was rushed to the third floor and gone behind closed doors. Leslie gave all of the information she could to the staff and nurses, trying to resist the urge to ask if she could just go in and make sure Ann was okay. But, the nurses assured her that they would let her know as soon as they knew anything. She would get an update as soon as there was one to give.

And then as quickly as it started, there was nothing to do.

She went back and parked the car out in a lot where it belonged. Numbly she locked the door behind her and started walking back towards the entrance. It struck her that she wanted to call Ben, to tell him what had happened, to get him here, for her. And only then did it occur to her that who she needed to call was Chris.

She pulled her phone from her pocket and composed herself for the call.

"You've reached Chris Traeger," his voice mail sounded, "leave me a message and I'll call you _right_ back."

"Chris, it's Leslie," she began, her voice threatening to crack. "Something happened. Ann, she, Ann had to go to the hospital. I don't know what, yet. But you should get here—soon. I'm here, though. So, call me back."

She tried the phone again and again, not really wanting to get through, but trying nonetheless in hopes that he might hear it, or feel it, or somehow realize he needed to answer.

When she reached the third floor, she still hadn't gotten him on the line. With a cold, stiff body she took a seat on the couch in the waiting room and looked up at the door. There were two other groups of people there, waiting for the good news that their little one had arrived. She could tell by their buzz, their excitement, that they were awaiting good news. They were here with healthy moms delivering healthy babies. Normally she would have felt odd, observing this very intimate moment in someone else's life. But instead, she felt like the intimate moment. She felt like the one being looked at: the sad lady in the maternity ward.

Giving up on getting through to Chris, she let herself do what she'd been dying to since she parked the car. After two rings she heard Ben's voice, "Hey honey, how's the packing going?" Packing. She almost couldn't believe that an hour before, she'd been packing. "I could stop by if you want, maybe bring some dinner?"

"I'm at the hospital." She said, the words sounding odd coming out of her mouth.

"The hospital? What are you doing there?"

"There's something wrong with Ann, or the baby, or both. I don't know. There was blood, Ben. Just a little, but still. There was blood." She went silent again, a tear finally breaking free of her eye and rolling down her cheek.

"I'm on my way, sweetie, okay."

From somewhere inside of her another set of words tumbled out before he could hang up the phone. "I can't find Chris. Find Chris."

"Okay, I will. Just hold tight, honey."

She just nodded weakly unaware that he couldn't see, and hung up her phone.

She sat on the stiff waiting room love seat and stared at the worn carpet, losing track of time entirely. She thought about the past day and how worried she'd been about a special event permit at a park. How absurd it seemed now to worry about _that._

She was still lost in her own thoughts when she heard her name spoken across the room. She looked up and locked eyes with her beloved Ben. He had one arm around Chris, who was still in a spandex biking outfit, his hair disheveled from a helmet and tears streaming down his face. She wondered for just a moment if that was how she looked when Ben held her like that, like he was literally holding her up, but thinking nothing of it. She stood and raced to them, wrapping them both in a hug together.

They embraced for a long moment before she pulled away.

"Do you have any news?" Ben asked, calmly.

She wondered how he could possibly be so calm and collected in this moment as she took a breath. "No news. We're just waiting." He nodded and took her by the shoulders in his other arm, pressing a kiss to her forehead.

Ben led the pair back to the corner where Leslie had been sitting and put them each in seats, curling himself next to Leslie in the loveseat and letting her rest her body on him.

No one spoke for a long while as minutes ticked past. The cheerful murmurs of other families were quiet enough to ignore, and Leslie just sat, feeling the slow rise and fall of Ben's chest against her own, his hand wrapped firmly around hers.

Then, a man in a white coat appeared the doorway and locked eyes with her. "Ann Perkins?" she heard Chris ask from the seat beside her.

The doctor gave them a weak smile and stepped closer to them. The three stood wordlessly, as if awaiting judgment in a trial. The doctor extended a hand to Chris first, "You must be the father?"

"Yes, I'm Chris Traeger. Ann is my… I'm the father."

"Congratulations," the doctor said quietly with a gentle smile, "you have a new baby boy. Mom is stable, and resting."

The group released a collective breath and Leslie tried to quiet her next ragged inhale.

The doctor began to explain the situation to them: placental abruption, emergency cesarean, luckily in time. Leslie processed bits and pieces, trying her best to be professional and focused, but failing. She caught the good and the bad as he spoke: unstable, wait and see, he's fighting. She was in and out of a daze until the last line, directed at Chris. "Would you like to see your son?"

Ben gave Chris a pat on the back as he followed the doctor back into the unknown halls of the hospital, leaving Ben and Leslie alone again.

"She's okay, Leslie. They're both okay."

She nodded slightly, her legs feeling heavy underneath her. But, she could feel them. For the first time since she left Ann's house, she knew she had legs. She turned to wrap him in a hug, pressing her body against his and letting herself truly sob for the first time. He caught her, wrapping his arms around her middle and holding her up as she cried.

Eventually, she tilted her head up to meet his eyes. "I'm sorry," she sobbed. "I'm sorry I freaked out about the park permits, and Eagleton. I'm sorry that I never make time for just us and that I'm always dragging you in to something. I'm sorry. I'm…" she trailed off, searching for a better word, "I'm just sorry."

Ben bobbed his head, accepting the apology. "You don't need to be sorry, honey. I know I'm a stick in the mud, sometimes, but I love it. I love all of it. I love that you get so passionately worked up over things that most people don't care about. I love that you bring people together. I love all of it. So don't be sorry."

Leslie smiled up at him, feeling like she might actually be holding some of her own weight on her legs again. She moved her cheek against her shoulder to wipe away stray tears off of her chin. "Thank you."

Carefully, Ben slid them down onto the loveseat, shifting their embrace so that she was curled into his side again.

The laughter of one of the happy families floated over to them, and Leslie let herself smile with them. After all, there was a baby, albeit a premature baby, but still a baby.

"Chris wants to name that baby Kale," she said flatly.

"Kale?" Ben repeated, lifting his eyebrows as high as they went. "Like the green leafy vegetable?"

"Yep."

As if the laughter was contagious, a chuckle erupted from Ben. Leslie found herself giggling too, not even necessarily at the name, or at Ben, but just because it was there. The laughter was coming out of her.

When they started to attract attention Ben finally contained himself. "Do you want to go get a cocoa or something? It sounds like we're going to be here for a while."

Over hot chocolate in the stuffy hospital cafeteria they brainstormed names for the new baby better than Kale. They giggled over options like Chard, or Arugula, or Romaine before trying to make the food theme work with a name like Oliver, or Roman, or Chad. Leslie had almost forgotten the severity of the situation, the hellish day, and the world on the third floor when her cell phone rang and she saw Chris' name displayed on the screen.

"Ann is awake, and she would very much like to see you," he annunciated every sound, his cadence, if nothing else, back to normal.

"And how is your baby?" she asked.

"He is quite small, and needs a lot of help to grow big and strong, but he is perfect. He is a perfect, beautiful boy." Leslie smiled at this description.

"I'll be right up," she said.

Taking a cue, Ben took her by the hand and walked with her back up to Ann's room. As she moved to walk back towards the rooms, he gave her hand one quick, reassuring squeeze before he let go. She smiled back at him, then stepped through the door to see her friend.

Ann was barely propped in the hospital bed, eyes sagging, skin pale, and hair disheveled. She could hardly have been mistaken for the woman who just hours before was glowing and laughing while trying to fight Leslie to let her get rid of a dirty old cookie sheet, rather than try to polish it with baking soda. But, she gave Leslie a weak smile as she entered the room.

"How ya feeling?" Leslie asked to break the silence between them.

"Like someone cut me open and took a baby out of me," Ann responded.

Leslie nodded. It was odd to be here with her best friend and not really know what to say, especially for Leslie, who always had something to say. "I'm sorry about all of this," she stuttered out. "I know it's… well it sucks, too."

Ann allowed herself a long blink. "Yeah, it's going to suck for a while." Leslie frowned as Ann spoke. "But I've got a baby in there, and Chris, and you. And that's a lot."

"And the baby, he's…" Leslie couldn't bring herself to ask the question she really wanted the answer to… is he going to make it? Her mind spun, looking for a different way to end the statement. But she wasn't fast enough.

"He's small, Leslie, he's so small. And he's weak," Ann's face curled up, her brows furrowing and her lips pursing to cry, "but he's fighting."

Leslie moved next to the bed and carefully took her hand, avoiding the IVs and tubes.

"They say the first 24 hours are the hardest. But, I'm so scared. I'm so scared."

Leslie wasn't used to seeing Ann like this, so fragile and uncertain. So, she just gave her hand that same reassuring squeeze she'd just received. "Hey, Ann, look at me." She called her friend's eyes to meet hers. "He is going to be fine. You are going to be fine. You've got to believe that, okay. And we're all going to be right here, for you and for Chris and for the baby. Okay? And 24 hours? We can do 24 hours. I am going to be right here."

"You don't need to…" Ann began to protest.

"Nope, don't try to fight me on this, I'm have got a pretty good sugar buzz going and you're down a good amount of blood. I'm not leaving this building until your son if 24 hours older and stronger, okay?"

Ann nodded weakly.

"Chris and I, we talked about it, and he wanted us to all be together to ask you, but I just, I can't think of a better time…" Ann blinked again. "We want you to be his Godmother. I mean, there is no one else in the world who I would want, if anything were to happen." Leslie gulped for air involuntarily as she lost the battle against the tears welling up in her eyes. "You saved us. If you hadn't been there, I just, I don't know." She paused. "You did so good, Leslie. You got me here in time. You told them all the right things. You did so good."

"I just did what you told me," Leslie said, now blubbering, but trying to force on a smile. "I was your indentured servant for the day, remember? I just did what I was told."

Ann let a smile break across her face too.

"But I would be honored to be a Godmother to your little boy. Even if Chris does name him Kale."

Ann rolled her eyes as they closed again. "Oh God no, you need to make sure he doesn't get anywhere near that birth certificate." She released half a laugh that sounded more like a hard exhale.

"I'm on it," she said tenderly. "But now I should let you rest okay. I love you."

"I love you, too."

When she returned to the waiting room, Leslie found Ben and Chris sitting side-by-side having a spirited discussion. "Leslie Knope," Chris said, "your husband is literally, the most creative man I've ever met."

Leslie smiled. "Yeah, he's not so bad. What did he think of this time?"

"Caleb. We could even spell it with a K. Kaleb. It's perfect."

"Kaleb," Leslie parroted. "I like it." She shot Ben a mischievous look which he mirrored.

"I love it," Chris said. "I am going to go ask Ann what she thinks, right now." Chris sprung to his feet and dashed off towards Ann's room.

"Okay. She's pretty wiped though," Leslie called after him, then, she spun to face Ben.

"You look pretty wiped yourself honey," he said.

Her instinct was to perk herself back up, pull on a smile, and argue that she wasn't tired. For anyone else, she would have done just that. But this was Ben. So, she just nodded in defeat.

"Should we get you home?" he asked.

She looked at him guiltily. "I promised Ann I'd be here, at least for the first 24 hours. I'm sorry, honey, you can go home if you want. I'll stay."

"24 hours?" Ben asked hesitantly "Are things okay? I mean, Chris says they are, but you know how bad news from Chris sounds."

Leslie plopped back down into the loveseat, "The baby is still pretty weak, and they say the first 24 hours are the hardest."

"Then we'll stay," he said, matter of factly, pulling her hand back into his.

"You don't have to. I know I just said I was sorry for doing this…" her tone became singsong.

"And I just said that I love you for doing things like this," he replied, still stoic. "Can you imagine if that were our baby in there? Can you imagine just hoping that your baby can survive 24 hours? We're going to be here for them. We're going to be here to celebrate that day old baby."

She gave him a slow kiss on the mouth then settled her head into his chest, "I can't believe you just encouraged Chris to name his son after a vegetable." A small smile was still formed on her lips as she let herself drift off to sleep.

* * *

Leslie awoke to Ben shifting underneath her. She opened her eyes as he tried to cradle her head down onto the cushion, slipping out from under her. The lights were still on dimly in the waiting room, but with no windows or natural light, she felt disoriented and confused. She lifted her head and adjusted her sore neck with a creak. "Sorry, I was trying not to wake you," Ben said. "It's almost 8, I just wanted to call the office and let them know what's going on."

"Eight, really?" Leslie was in disbelief that she'd slept so long, and wondered how long Ben had been sitting awake with her curled up on him.

"Almost, yeah. Chris came by about an hour ago. He and Ann are in with the baby."

"And the baby?"

"So far, so good." Ben paused. "I'm gonna go make this call, then, let's go grab a bite to eat. You need food."

Leslie nodded, realizing that she hadn't eaten since her lunch break with Ann after packing the kitchen.

Piling a cafeteria waffle on her plate, aware that it wouldn't be good, but looking forward to it nonetheless, she took her seat at the sterile table. "Everything okay at the office?" she asked her husband over a small mountain of whipped cream.

"Yeah," he said tentatively. "They're a worried about Ann, of course, but things are okay."

Leslie nodded.

"I think some of them from the office are going to stop by after work."

Something in his tone made her wonder what was wrong. "Okay, what's really going on?"

"I… You know that today I scheduled that meeting with all of the department heads about Eagleton. Will you be more mad if I go, or don't go?"

Leslie looked somewhat t abashed. "I won't be mad, Ben."

"That's not true," he eyed her. "You already know what you want me to do, and I don't want to make the wrong choice."

"You should do what you want to."

"Leslie?"

"I…" she tried to fight but then realized that with Ben, it was not only unnecessarily, but futile. "What time is the meeting?"

"Three."

"Stay here until then, and go."

"Thank you." He finally picked up his spoon and scooped up a bite of scrambled eggs.

After breakfast they made their way back up to the third floor and asked the nurse for an update on Ann. They were ushered back to her room and tapped hesitantly on the door before easing it open a bit.

Ann was sitting up, now, the color back in her face and looking more like her usual self. Leslie gave her a big smile, which was returned. "Hey, you're up!"

"Come on in, guys," Ann held out hand to usher them in. "Ben," her outstretched hand beckoned him.

Ben bent over to give her half a hug, then stepped back by Chris, who sat on a chair next to the bed.

"Feeling better this morning?" Leslie asked.

"I'm not ready to run a marathon, but yeah, a good night's rest helped."

"The doctors say she is recovering beautifully," Chris explained.

"And how's your little guy?" Leslie probed gently.

Ann took a deep breath out as if bracing herself to even think about it. "He's stable as of this morning, so that's a good sign."

"That's great!" Leslie said, overenthusiastically. "So what does that mean, exactly?" she asked, still feeling entirely in over her head in a medical conversation.

"Well," she began, "It means he's not in distress any more. With all the machines, and the treatment, he's okay for now. But he is going to need to be here until he's strong enough to do all the things the machines are doing for him on his own, but he's okay."

"So…" Leslie

Chris jumped in to finish for Ann, knowing that even as professional, this was hard for her. "The doctor says he should be all set to come home in 6 to 8 weeks. They are quite confident that he is going to be just fine."

"6 to 8 weeks?" Leslie's tone shot up in surprise.

Ben shot her a stern look and gestured with his hand to calm her.

"By then he'll be full term, and he'll be ready to be home with us," Chris continued.

"Well it is great news that he's recovering and stable," Ben said assuringly. "And if there is anything that we can do, of course. We'll be here for you through this."

"But 6 weeks?" Leslie said, still tied up a few steps back in conversation. "You're supposed to leave next week for Ann Arbor." She looked to Ann, then Chris, then back to Ann.

"We talked about it this morning," Ann said, maintaining her clinical tone. "It will be a couple of months before he is strong enough and healthy enough for something like a move. So, we backed out of the house and are going to stay here," she said, "for now."

"You're not going to Ann Arbor?"

"For now," Chris reiterated. "Making sure that he is healthy and stable is the _most_ important thing that we can do."

"But my family doesn't know yet, and they're on their way out this afternoon. So please don't…" Ann began, rushed.

"I won't say a word." Leslie promised. "You know me, I can keep a secret like a, uh…" three pairs of eyes stared at her as she searched for the word.

"No offense Leslie, but you…"Ann began.

"Oh fine, I'll try my best."

"Thank you," Ann replied. "I just think I'm going to need to ease them into this. Distract them with the baby first or something."

"Oh, I have got a terrific idea," Chris jumped in looking first to Ben, then Leslie. "Do you want to meet him?"

As Leslie's eyes lit up, Ann winced. "Guys he's a little- well he's scary looking right now. Are you sure you…"

"Ann," Leslie broke in, "you and Chris are the two single most attractive people in all of Pawnee." From where he stood, Ben pulled his face into a pout. "I'm sure your baby is completely and utterly perfect."

* * *

After a gamut of hand washing and costume change, the four stood carefully around the incubator, looking at the tiny infant surrounded by tubes and cords. Leslie felt Ben put his hand on her back as a lump formed in her throat. In the warm room, she could feel her cool tears welling in her eyes. "He's so tiny."

"He's beautiful," Ben said quietly. Leslie bobbed her head in agreement. He curled up closer behind her to get a better view of the baby and pulled her to him.

They all fell silent, taking in the moment, marked by the beeping and pulsing of machines.

"I sort of can't believe you have one of these."

"I know right?" Ann almost laughed. "I was still getting used to the idea, and now here he is."

"And did you settle on a name?"

Ann glanced at Chris again, almost as if looking for permission to let out a secret. "Yeah, we're going with Kaleb."

Leslie turned her head and smiled up at her husband.

"Really?" Ben's brows shot up.

"Yeah, we decided that it's kind of perfect," Ann shrugged.

"And actually, while we're all here," Chris began, "we were wondering if you, Ben and Leslie, would be Kaleb's godparents. It would mean _so_ much to us."

Ben looked a bit taken aback, but looked up at Chris, then down at Leslie, who was smiling. "Godparents?" he said.

"Absolutely," Ann said. "We want to know that you'll always be a part of his life."

"That's, wow, I mean, we'd love to," Ben said.

Leslie just gave a nod and smile to her friend. "We certainly would."

"There is _literally_ no one else in the world we'd ask."

* * *

When they left the baby unit, Ben pulled Leslie aside in the hallway. "I know I promised you 24 hours…" he began.

"It's fine," Leslie cut him off. "Go home, get changed, and rock out that meeting."

"Are you sure?"

"Your cell phone alarm is going to go off in half an hour reminding you to leave anyway."

He scrunched his forehead and formed an "o" with his lips, cocking his head slightly to one side.

"I set it while you were in the bathroom," she admitted. "Go. I'll see you at home."

"Okay," he gave her a quick peck on the cheek, "I'm going to go say a quick goodbye to Ann and Chris."

"Oh, and also," Leslie said, pulling his attention back before he could wander away, "high five on beating out Ann's sister for Godmother." Leslie raised an arm above her head in the most gangster way she could.

"Oh yeah," Ben said smoothly, slapping her hand for a high five then extending a fist for a bump.

* * *

Leslie arrived home at 5 o'clock, her 24-hour promise kept, and having met Ann's parents and sister when they got in. Although she'd left the hospital in good spirits, she felt a relief roll over her as she entered the house and took a familiar breath of home. Ben's car wasn't in the driveway, yet, so she walked straight up the stairs to her shower and ran the water. She pulled off her moving day clothes, which felt soft with the oils of over wear, and let the hot water unknot her muscles after a night of sleeping upright.

She stepped out of the shower and put on sweat pants and a t-shirt, feeling clean and comfortable for the first time in what seemed like an eternity. Her stocking feet padded down the stairs and she wandered into the kitchen, pulling out a bag of chips and bottle of wine. Pouring herself a glass she moved to the adjacent room and took a seat on her own couch, breathing a deep sigh of relief at the familiarity and normalcy of the moment after so much change.

The coffee table was cluttered with papers, notes, and Ben's laptop. She realized that he'd probably been sitting in this very spot when her call came in the night before, launching him into a search for Chris and a frantic drive to the hospital. Setting her glass down on the table, she looked over his notes, expecting to see a strategy to take down Eagleton. But, she did a double take when she instead saw maps, not of Pawnee, but of the state congressional districts. She leafed through a stack of papers and saw the beginnings of campaign notes. For her. For 2014. For state senate. "Oh my," she said allowed to herself aloud.

Feeling a smidge guilty, she pulled open the lid of the laptop to wake up the sleeping machine in front of her. She was met by the beginnings of a speech announcing her candidacy, sample images of campaign logos, and a list of potential contributors open in scattered windows across the screen. Pouring over the notes and documents she discovered a timeline for the race beginning in just a week and scheduled for the months to come leading up to a November election. She was fighting an adrenaline rush, feeling excited and terrified at the same time. Just like the moment she'd been approached about the possibility of running for city counsel, the 10 year old inside of her was giddy with opportunity. But, just like that moment, she was torn with the realization of what this meant for the rest of her life. Everything else would, again, have to be pushed off for now.

She had demolished most of the bag of chips and her first glass of wine, taking in Ben's plans scattered across the coffee table, when she heard the front door open and her husbands footsteps in the entry way.

"Honey, you beat me home." He called to her, making his way back to the end of the house where she sat.

She spun and looked up at him, unable to mask her internal panic when she met his eyes. "Hi."

"Oh," he said, his face falling in the realization of what she was doing, what he had inadvertently set her up to find. He set down his briefcase on the countertop and moved towards her.

"Yeah," she said, conveying her anxiety, her excitement, and her confusion in one syllable.

He wordlessly moved to the couch and she scooted to make more space for him.

"You think I should run for state senate?" saying the words out loud elicited more excitement in her than even she had expected, and she beamed at him as she said them.

"I thought that maybe we could talk about it," he said cautiously, raising his eyebrows.

"Ben, this is a lot more than talk about it," she gestured to the pile in front of her.

"Well I wanted to be prepared. You're rubbing off on me," he said sheepishly.

She smiled again. "This looks really good. I mean, you're the best campaign manager in town."

He returned her grin, enthusiasm building in his voice as he began, "I may have gotten a little carried away, but it's fun. I thought it would be a good distraction, you know, with Ann and Chris leaving. But now with them staying, I don't know what's going to happen with the City Manager position. I mean I'm just the interim so if Chris needs his job back I could still back out and manage this."

The weight of those words settled on her and reignited her internal battle. They had finally settled into a stable rhythm in their work together. Life was finally starting to feel normal. No campaign, no long distance, no wedding to plan, no recall election, just Leslie and Ben starting to act like a family. She looked for the words to tell him that she just couldn't do this, without having to lay it all out on the table, without having to talk about ticking biological clocks or sound like a woman ready to give up on her career goals to be a mommy. "And you'd be so good at it!" she said with enthusiasm, a big smile across her mouth. "But, you know," she pulled one side of her face up in feigned disappointment, hoping that she wasn't over-acting it, "Chris is going to be so caught up with the baby for the next couple of months, I doubt he's going to have time for that. And really, we're godparents now, we've got responsibilities, too." She couldn't for the life of her think of an example of one of these responsibilities, but she hoped he wouldn't call her out on that point.

"Of course, yeah, and we can talk about it. But Leslie, I really think you stand a shot. I mean this seat only comes up every 4 years, and I've done some research on the district." He shuffled through papers and found the right one to give her, "Your platform matches that voters are looking for right now, you've got name recognition, your experience is right up there, and there's no one else on the horizon for 2014 except the incumbent."

Hearing it all got her excited again. She couldn't push down the possibility building up inside of her as she imagined being introduced as Senator Knope. "Yes!" spilled out of her upturned mouth before she reigned it back in. Her forehead wrinkled and she looked down at her hands, defeated. "No. No, I can't."

Ben's face fell, too. He waited for her to look up at meet his eyes, but she did not. She remained focused on her hands until he turned on the couch to face forward rather than her, his own eyes downturned towards his feet. "Okay," his voice was soft combination of hurt and confused.

"I…" she pulled her eyes away from her hands and looked up at his profile. "Ben, I want to have a baby."

He spun his head to look at her, brows raised, eyes wide, and mouth hanging slightly open.

"I know," the rush from excitement to fear to this caught up with her and she cursed tears getting ready to gleam in her eyes again. She blinked and looked up to the ceiling, then to the upper corners of the room, avoiding his eyes that were burning into her. "I know that this is a great campaign opportunity but… Ben if we don't do this now we might never be able to." She finally let her eyes flicker down to meet his momentarily.

His face was still blank, mouth hanging open limply, so she continued to make her case.

Looking up again, to avoid his penetrating gaze, she began to ramble to fill a nervous space. "I couldn't be pregnant on the campaign trail, and as a freshman senator it just wouldn't work. We couldn't event talk about it again until, what, 2 years from now? And by then I'll be over 40 and who knows. I know it sounds so totally lame and I don't want to say that I'll give up my career, or my dreams, but I just think that a political career will still be there when I'm a little older and maybe being able to have kids wont and…" Even though she was out of things to say the words continued to try to pour out of her. The tears were threatening to spill now and she kept her eyes pulled high and focused on details of the ceiling to keep them from falling.

She felt his hand drop heavy onto hers, pulling her attention back to him and way from her own rant. Her eyes snapped back to his face as he said, "Yes."

For a second she wasn't certain what that word meant, so she searched his eyes for a clue.

"You don't need to talk me into it. Let's have a baby," his tone was so serious, so calm, and his eyes drilled into hers.

While she felt completely out of control and spinning, he was, as always, completely grounded. She opened her mouth to respond, to protest, to continue her case, but she had nothing to say. "Oh."

The smile reappeared on his face as he pulled her in to kiss her deeply.


End file.
